The St. Louis Huntington's Disease Foundation NFP*, in association with Unicity International -The Make Life Better Company, is the end result of a dream of Sandy's and mine to make a substantial contribution to family services The mission of our foundation is to generate funding for family services in the St. Louis area as well as other Centers of Excellence across the United States.
Ten years ago Sandy and I learned that Huntington’s Disease was to become an intergral part of our lives. Sandy inherited HD from her father, and we have two children and a grandchild who are “at risk”. As with many families with HD, the disease struck just when we thought that most of the major hurdles of career and family growth were behind us, at least for a few years. We were well established professionally and our children were about ready to go out on their own. We looked forward to enjoying each other and the rewards of many years of hard work. We still can, and do enjoy each other’s company, but many of the things we planned to do are now too difficult. Sandy and I have been active in the St. Louis HD community for several years and we have offered our support in contributions of time and money. We have been active in the local support group, and have been members of the Board of Directors of the St. Louis Chapter of HDSA, but we felt we could do more.
It was during a board meeting about a year ago that the idea of this foundation was born. We were discussing fund raising ideas, and the idea of a night out at a restaurant in which a percentage of the profit would be donated to the St. Louis Chapter was discussed. In the past, Sandy and I have donated 20% of the income from our Unicity business to the St. Louis Chapter of HDSA for research, and at a meeting in San Antonio with some of our associates, there was a discussion of how some of the other people in our business were donating distributorships to Churches and other non-profit organizations to aid in their fund raising. Now the “ah ha” moment. What if we were to set up a distributorship as a non-profit foundation? By eliminating Sandy and me as the middlemen, the STLHD Foundation would potentially return about 40-50% of everything generated from its own web site. This would not be “One Night Only”, but 24/7.
After a few months of discussion with the St. Louis Board of HDSA to ensure that the STLHD Foundation would not place HDSA, or St. Louis Chapter of HDSA in any legal jeopardy, and that individuals on the Board were supportive of the idea of the Foundation, the legal work to establish the Foundation was begun. In July of 2005 the St. Louis Huntington’s Disease Foundation NFP, in association with Unicity International, the Make Life Better Company and Foundation, became a dream come true! A year later we were approved by the IRS as a tax-exempt 501 © (3) corporation.
* The St. Louis Huntington's Disease Foundation NFP is a Not-for Profit Corporation Incorporated Under the Laws of the State of Illinois. While our mission is to support Family Services at HDSA Centers of Excellence across the United States, we are not affiliated with HDSA, nor does HDSA endorse our products. All products offered for sale by the STLHDFoundation are backed by Unicity International and offer a 60-day money back guarantee. If you have any questions about the Foundation, or the products offered by the Foundation, please contact me so that I can answer your questions and help you to help us make this the last generation devastated by Huntington's Disease.
